Thursday, September 02, 2010

Unfolding May's Folder - Pig out sessions with family

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright

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The accidental find -- Kyomomoyama

Being a creature of habit, whenever kh and I head out to the Central mall it would be to satisfy my ramen craving at Santouka. Santouka dishes out authentic Japanese ramen and it's touted to serve the best ramen in Singapore as claimed by many food reviewers and by me, the fussy eater.

Kh often laments that after eating Santouka's ramen, I'm too spoilt for any other ramen. Every now and then, we would get our Santouka ramen fix on Saturday nights. The queue would usually be quite long but it was hell LOOOOOOOONG that very Saturday!

We had to wait almost an hour and I was dying of famine. Kh suggested we try other eateries much to my chagrin for I was craving for ramen that evening.

We walked around the whole of Central and stumbled onto Kyomomoyama (京桃山). It was one of the eateries with no queue at all and I was glad circumstances led us to this place for the food we ordered was simply oishii!

I can't remember the exact names of our sets. Each set meal consisted of an assortment of dishes and everything on our trays was gratifying. We finished every single morsel of food on our plates.

The slices of beef in my soup was done to my liking (coz the degree of doneness could be controlled simply by fishing out the slices whenever I deem fit) and the soup was pleasantly sweet.

I loved the sashimi salad and cold tako appetiser for kh's side. The sashimi was fresh with a springy feel; the pickles light and refreshingly tangy.

Like most sets, miso soup and chawanmushi came with it and they tasted like any other miso and chawanmushi. We ordered the grilled steak separately and that one was really juicy. I loved the sauce that accompanied and the doneness of the steak but we had to make sure we removed the pieces of meat from the hot plate before they became overly well done.

The set also included dessert which was a scoop of rather normal chocolate ice cream. Wouldn't it be nice if it came with Japanese ice cream like green tea or black sesame?

The restaurant offers a riverside view and we easily secured a window seat. However instead of admiring the river view at night, we were looking at the reflection of the couple at the other table coz we were such nosey parkers.

From the photos, you could tell that the place was quite empty. When we were there at about 8pm, only 4 other tables were occupied. I wondered if Kyomomoyama would continue its operations if this carried on. Kh and I thought that the food was really delicious and were puzzled about the lack of patrons.

From what I read on the internet, many food reviewers gave it an average rating. There were some hits and misses with a majority recommending to go only for its value-for-money lunch.

Kyomomoyama is supposedly popular in Taiwan and became an instant hit with the public with its first outlet, leading to the establishment of two more outlets in Taiwan within a fairly short period. Its overwhelming success prompted its management to expand its operations beyond Taiwan's shores and Singapore was chosen.

Hopefully more people would give Kyomomoyama a try. The pricing is moderate and it serves food better than most Japanese franchises here.

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Mother's Day Dinner at L'artisan Bistro & Bar

Having enjoyed our experience at L'artisan earlier this year, I decided to introduce my family to this little gem in the seedy Orhard Towers.

I won't be doing a review since it has already been done here. Let's just enjoy the photos and drool at the sight of the delicious food. =)

My family has the habit of ordering different dishes so that we could all share. There were definitely enough to go around.

Aren't the asparagus enormous? We've never seen such huge asparagus before. They were thick, juicy and oozing with refreshing sweetness.

After the hearty mains, we needed some dessert to cleanse our palate.

Taken by my sis's i-phone photo app. The photos looked a lot better on her i-phone screen than on the computer screen.

Once again, the lady boss Theresa attended to and joked with us every now and then. My famiy love the food and I forsee myself as a regular at L'artisan Bistro & Bar in time to come.

Dad & mum in their devil-angel tee again. I love it when they wear this couple tee out.

Family shot

As usual, I can't decide if the flashed or unflashed one is better.

Fooling around in the pretty loo at Palai Renaissance while waiting for mum who seemed to be thumbing on her mobile continuously while in the cubicle.

Tip: If you ever need to use the restroom at Orchard Towers, I suggest you pop by next door at Palai Renaissance. It's a lot cleaner and check out the unique wash basin with both the auto tap and soap dispenser located in the sink, not on top of it.

I'm not even halfway through the May folders. Been so bz at work but I hope I could update soon.

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